Test 2: Emotion and Motivation Flashcards
Emotion
a state of arousal involving facial and bodily changes, brain activation, cognitive appraisals, subjective feelings, and tendencies towards action, all shaped by cultural rules.
Primary emotions
considered universal and biologically based
What are the primary emotions?
Fear, anger, sadness, joy, surprise, disgust, (contempt)
Secondary emotions
develop with cognitive maturity and vary across individuals and cultures
What’s an example of a secondary emotion?
One may feel ashamed for feeling sad or angry about something
Facial Feedback
facial muscles send messages to the brain about the basic emotion being expressed.
Example of facial feedback
When told to smile/hold pencil in teeth, positive feelings increase
Darwin’s Theory on Facial Expression
facial expressions evolved to communicate our emotional states to others and to provoke response from them.
Babies’ expressions have survival value
- Parents can tell what infants need
- All adults feel connected when infant smiles at them
- Babies will mimic parents facial expressions/moods
Mood contagion
facial expressions of emotion can actually generate emotions in others
See picture of specific facial expressions and your own facial muscles mimic the ones you are observing, activating similar emotional states for you….is an example of what?
Mood contagion
Fast emotional response
Stimulus -> Thalamus -> Amygdala -> response
Slow emotional response
Stimulus -> Thalamus -> Cortex -> Amygdala -> response
Slow pathway of fear
Sensory info goes from thalamus, to cortex, to amygdala. Cortex conducts full scale investigation of info and its importance. Cortex sends message to amygdala to either maintain or decrease fear response
Fast pathway of fear
Amygdala gets info from thalamus directly and makes a fast and simple decision.
Primary emotions have unique…
hormone levels and cortex activation patterns
Lie detector test
- Based on assumption that a lie involves emotion and increased autonomic arousal
- Detects increased HR, respiration rate, electrical conductance of skin
Lie detectors are still generally invalid because….
- No pattern of physiological arousal is specific to lying (could be anger, nervousness, etc.)
- People can “beat the test” by thinking about something exciting or tensing muscles during neutral questions
Greek Philosophers said:
People don’t become angry, sad, or anxious because of actual events, but because of their explanations of those events.
James-Lange Theory
stimuli trigger activity in the autonomic nervous system (ANS), which in turn produces an emotional experience in the brain.
Cannon-Bard Theory
a stimulus simultaneously triggers activity in the ANS and emotional experience in the brain.
Two-factor theory (Schachter-Singer)
emotions are inferences about the causes of undifferentiated physiological arousal.
-Two factors: physiological response + cognitive interpretation
Our feelings depend on our interpretation/perception of a situation
Do poorly on an exam: 1. feel guilty b/c you didn’t study 2. feel angry b/c it was a difficult test 3. feel happy b/c want to fail out of school to join the circus
William James:
The paradox of the athlete who is “shamed to death” for coming in second place (but not 3rd)
